After having some Woodfords Reserve Distillers Select tonight I had some Jack Daniels Single barrel. As much as I like Jack Danles SB I liked the Woodfords better. The Jack Daniels has a much sweeter taste. It would probably be better suited for a broader range of drinker as I feel it appeals to more drinkers as it has the name reconization the people associate with a good drink and it
is easier to drink for most than the better higher end Bourbons. Don't get me wrong I like Jack Daniels Single Barrel but I am starting to really be able to determine the differences from this high end Tennessee Whiskey from some of the better Bourbon Whiskeys. Just my humble opinion. Creggor
i

01-11-2001, 05:52

**DONOTDELETE**

Re: Jack Daniels Single Barrel

Creggor,

Both of those are among my top favorites. Here's one of the neatest things about enjoying American whiskey... try that same comparison next month and don't be surprised if you get just the opposite results. That's why a collection of different whiskeys is just as important as a collection of different music. It's not so much that any one or two are so great; it's the variety that makes it so wonderful. And your own state of being at any given time is an important factor.

Of course, you want to go apples with apples, oranges with oranges as far as quality levels are concerned. Comparing JD single barrel with Woodford Reserve is very appropriate (even more so considering that they're both high-end products of the same parent company), but you wouldn't want to put, say, Early Times (also a Brown-Forman product) up against it. Your collection seems to be all pretty (well, very) high-quality stuff (at least you never mentioned that bottle of Cabin Still). In fact, all of the ones you named in the "Weller 19" post are above JDSB's league. If you haven't done so already, you might enjoy comparing Jack's premium with George Dickel's 10-year-old Reserve, too.

My own (sometimes good-naturedly ridiculed here) point of view is that, in today's world, there are no BAD bourbons (and Tennessee would be included with that) simply because there are only a handful of surviving distilleries and they're all first rate, competent whiskey makers. There is a wide range of quality, but the scope stretches from "magnificent! great!" only down as far as "okay, but there are others I like better... many others".

Bringing forward this excellent older post (I hope Creggor is still with us) because it states exactly how I feel about JD Single Barrel after a recent tasting. The flavours are big but, as Randy said recently too, "sweet" and as Chuck says in The Book, mostly at the surface. This isn't a bad thing, I can see drinking this with lots of rocks at a pool party, say, where the drink is not the focus and you still want good flavor. I think JD Single Barrel is less complex than most other single barrel whiskies because I believe it uses less rye than most rye-recipe Bourbons. Also, it must be amongst, if not, the youngest of the single barrel whiskies. Then too, the famous charcoal leaching does something, it seems to simplify the taste but also brighten or "display" it. The Woodford Reserve is more stylish (especially recent samples incorporating some pot still whiskey from L&amp;G). WR and JDSB are fine whiskies and have their merits but at bottom they represent different styles, and maybe the comparison is unfair.

Gary

09-04-2004, 21:36

Vision

Re: Jack Daniels Single Barrel

I haven't tried JDSB, but I find it interesting JBeam Black scored higher than it in some tasting competition.